Shireen Abu Akleh spent the last moments of her life enjoying the adrenaline of the exhilarating, but very dangerous, line of work she’s excelled in for years.
Who killed Shireen Abu Akleh?
This is how those who knew the veteran reporter personally will reflect on her.
Abu Akleh was shot in the face while covering Israeli raids in the city of Jenin, on Wednesday, per Al Jazeera.
A colleague that was with the 51-year-old veteran news correspondent, Mujahed al-Saadi, recalled the moment the news crew was, in his own words, ‘targeted’ at a Jenin refugee camp, allegedly by Israeli armed forces.
“We were waiting for our colleagues to enter the refugee camp. We chose a point that did not have confrontations between the Israeli army and the armed fighters. We waited for Shireen to put on all of her safety gear. She then reached us then we moved a few metres.
“Then within seconds, there was the first shot. I told them that we are being targeted, that we’ve been shot at. I turned and found Shireen on the ground. I found Shatha [Hanaysha] shielding herself by a tree and screaming,” he recalled.
The shooting, according to Al-Saadi, went on for three minutes and at the time, it was near impossible to reach Abu Akeh and provide her with first aid.
WATCH: Israeli forces raid Abu Akleh’s home
The shocking death of the Palestinian reporter has revived tensions in the region, and at the time of publishing this article, Al Jazeera reported that a confrontation broke out between Israeli forces and the Abu Akleh’s family at her home in Jerusalem.
#BREAKING: Israeli forces raid the family house of al-Jazeera's key correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh who was killed this morning by Israeli gunfire during an Israeli army assault in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. pic.twitter.com/dGMjMEvRVt
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) May 11, 2022
Al Jazeera‘s Walid al-Omari, Bureau Chief in Jerusalem, has vehemently described Shireen’s murder as an Israeli assassination.
“The eyewitnesses told us the bullet was shot from where the Israeli occupation soldiers were located,” he said.
A brief biography on Shireen Abu Akleh
Shireen was a household name in political journalism, revered across the Arab world for her no-nonsense and unfiltered coverage of the bloody Israeli-Palestinian war.
While Shireen was a US citizen, her heart and life’s work drew her close to Jerusalem, where she was born and raised, Friends and colleagues who’ve spoken out about Abu Akleh remember her as a kind-hearted and loving person, whose infectious laugh charmed everyone she encountered.
“She was kind, dedicated and devoted. She knew the story through and through and she understood the nuances. She brought a wealth of information to her reporting,” Abu Akleh’s colleague Nida Ibrahim said.
At the time of her tragic death, Shireen had been undergoing language classes to learn Hebrew. She had also recently obtained a diploma in digital media.
Shireen Abu Akleh is survived by her brother Tony Abu Akleh.
